Monstrous Chosen Spellslingers
by GoliathPyroson
Summary: Danny Fenton was a boy who loved the stars, no matter what world he was looking up at them from. He never believed his parents when they said that they were trying to find the world of ghosts, but every world they went to had the most beautiful stars and constellations for him to draw out for his friends. Friends he would do anything for, even a stupid dare he knew was a bad idea.
1. Lunch Bites Back

**Hey there readers! It's been a long time, huh? I haven't been here in like. A month, huh? Well, I've got y'all a brand new story! I hope you like it, I've been putting a lot of work into this one. As always, credits to my lovely beta: ReconstructWriter for being the actual best and helping me out. If you're reading this, your notes helped me think up some things I'm gonna be changing up in chapter 2! Without further ado, here's the start!**

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"Alright I showed you the portal," _he said._ "Can we go now before my parents get back? It doesn't work."

"C'mon Danny, a 'Ghost Zone?' Aren't you curious?" _Sam walked toward the octagonal metal frame, large enough Jack Fenton himself needn't duck down. She stared into the darkness, eyes wide._

"I'm more curious about why it failed to even open up to a destination." _Danny heard himself sigh, but was that really him?_ "I checked their math, it's just as spot on as ever."

"As ever?" _Tucker crowed from where he looked over notes that weren't meant for Non-Fenton eyes._ "This math is insane, and that's my whole specialty!"

"We've been to other worlds before." _And whispers of those worlds, of endless possibilities, rose in the back of his head. He swore they were right there, just over his shoulder, but when he looked there was nothing._ "This should've worked. It wouldn't take us to some 'Ghost Zone' - it's a dumb name and ghosts aren't real - but it would take us somewhere new." _Danny grinned._ "Just imagine the awesome stuff that we could find this time. Maybe sentient life!"

"Well alien enthusiast," _Sam drawled._ "Head on inside and see what's wrong. Maybe you can fix it?"

_The whispers rose into a crescendo, and they were shouting over Sam's voice, Tucker's voice, Danny's own thoughts were crowded out by the din of world after world demanding his attention. His head was going to split open, his body shook from the sound, each cell in tune with the wrong world and he was falling apart and coming undone-_

Danny's alarm blared. The sun shone. Clearly, it was time to get up, but Danny disagreed. He pulled his cover over his head, hoping to block out the noise and light. For a moment, it felt like that had worked, for the world was dark and quiet again. It took Danny a moment too long to realize how unnaturally quiet it had gotten, and he was met with the floor, pajamas partly stuck within the bed.

Danny grumbled under the bed for a moment. "I feel like all of this is telling me that the day is gonna suck. Maybe I should stay in bed?" When everything began to haze up and fade, Danny sighed and concentrated. A blink, the world was back. "Or it's a sign that I have to get out of bed right away. Ugh."

Alarm turned off, teeth brushed, shower taken, other morning routine stuff done, Danny found himself dressed in a white T-shirt with a red star on it. Down the stairs he tred. His parents were absent. Jazz wasn't. "Good morning Danny!" No one should be so cheery, Danny felt.

"Sup Spazz?"

"The fridge got splashed by Dad last night. I ran out and bought some milk, and we still have cereal and bread." Jazz ignored his prodding. How rude. As a comedian, Danny worked very hard at thinking up puns and jokes. "Dad replaced the toaster the other day."

Danny rolled his eyes. "Does it burn the Fenton logo into the bread now?" The teen poured himself a bowl. Dad might actually do that after all.

"No, actually, it presses his face into it instead." Danny groaned. All of his suffering under the embarrassment that was his father went into it. The sound wasn't enough.

"Yup."

Danny and Jazz sat in silence while he ate. Like all quiet times, his existence came to mind. _I should tell them. Mom and Dad might be able to help understand. They wouldn't hurt me, I'm their son. Why haven't I told them?_ The spoon fell through his hand. Good question. Danny didn't want to think too hard on the answer.

The door to the basement lab opened up and hit the stopper on the wall with a bang. Mom, in her teal hazmat suit. Some device with an antenna was in her hands. She followed the beeping from it and pointed the device at Danny. Dad came out of the lab a step behind her, an orange jolly giant, and Danny leaned back. "Um?"

"There is a ghost directly in front of you." The machine droned, and Danny felt every muscle in his body tense up. How? He was careful! Now they'd think he was a hostile body snatcher or-

"Well that can't be right," Mom said. She adjusted a few dials, Dad looking down at the machine intently with her. Danny felt the light in the world fade away again. He forced it back just in time for his parents to look back up at him. "The Fenton Finder™ must still need a few bugs worked out."

"It's designed to use Fenton Satellites to track down ghostly ecto signatures."

"Dad," Danny asked slowly. "How many satellites have you hacked into for this?"

"Danny, you know we launched more satellites than just the few you've seen us launch don'cha?" Danny wondered, idly, how legal those satellites were. He'd have to look that up later.

"That doesn't tell me how many-"

"The number of satellites we have in orbit isn't relevant honey." Mom waved off the question and set the Fenton Finder on the table. "We'll have to dig in and see what's wrong with the receiver."

_What better time than when I'm being pointed at?_ Danny took a breath. "Actually, guys, there's something I need to tell you."

"That's not all you need Danny." Why now? Danny loved his sister, really, but this was the worst time. "You need guidance. Parents who can provide it!" Jazz was in front of him now, frowning at their parents. Danny buried his face in his hands.

"Now Jazz," Mom said. "I know that what we do doesn't always make sense. However, you're only-"

"Only 16 physically." Danny backed away from Jazz a bit. "But mentally, I'm an adult." That was likely the least mature argument Danny could think of about maturity. "And I will not allow your obsession with ghosts to pollute the mind of this impressionable child!" She grabbed him. The most uncomfortable hug there ever was, that's what Danny was experiencing. "Come you abused unwanted wretch." Did something get in her coffee? Did he pull a prank recently? "I'll drive you to school." She was rubbing her license in his face, he'd done something to her recently.

Once they were in Jazz's car, Danny turned to his sister and stared at her. "Jazz," he said once they were driving down the road. "What the hell was that?"

"You looked like you were struggling with something," Jazz said. As though that explained anything. "Whatever it is you were going to say, you shouldn't tell just because you think you have to. Do it because you want to."

"Listen, my dear false sense of maturity, I appreciate that. I did want to tell them though." Danny leaned back and stared through the window. Familiar buildings passed by, other cars going at the speed limit to avoid traffic passed in a blur. "Thanks though."

"No problem." There was a quiet din of classical music in the car for a beat. When they came to a red light, Jazz turned and raised a brow at him. "What were you going to tell them?"

Did Danny want to tell Jazz about this before his parents? Maybe. She could help him gauge their parents' reactions better. At the same time, she might think he's joking. Ghosts don't exist. Jazz's motto. "I was going to tell them I'm bisexual." Not a lie. It was just less important to him.

"Oh. That's great Danny!" Jazz beamed at him and Danny squinted. How did she keep all that sunshine in those teeth? Jazz rambled about support for the rest of the ride. Danny suffered.

Danny met with his friends, Sam and Tucker after Jazz parked. They were easy to spot. Sam was in her usual short-sleeved black shirt with a pair of black shell pants. Tucker had on simple green khakis and that yellow sweater his mom knit him over the summer.

"Hey, guys." The pair greeted him back and they soon walked into the green painted halls of Casper High. "I'm shocked, honestly, no fights over food, how much tech should be used in the world or anything. How tired are you guys?"

"Shut," Sam growled. "Or else I will hurt you."

"Besides, we both know that the world needs better tech to fix the problems we've made for ourselves." Tucker looked so smug and proud of his claim. Sam kicked him. Tucker hit the ground with a yelp. "Foul play!"

"The warning wasn't just for Danny." Sam rolled her eyes while Danny helped Tucker to his feet.

"I think the foul play here is your combat boots." Danny sidestepped said boots, having expected it. The slug to the shoulder still stung a tiny bit. They chatted like that for a bit until the crowds were gone and Danny's far too sensitive ears could pick up no other conversations. "So, I was planning on telling my parents."

Sam scowled. "_Why_?"

"Finally." Tucker stared at the goth incredulously. "Um."

"Parents don't listen, Danny, nor do they understand."

"Are we still talking about my coming out here or yours?" Sam at least managed to look apologetic and Danny counted that as a win. "Like, I am entirely willing but can I just… vent a bit?"

"Sure Danny. We're here for you." Sam smiled and Danny gave a small smile back. He knew it wasn't a very convincing smile.

"I was thinkin about it. Mom and Dad made the portal in the first place, right? And they've made several in the past." So many exotic and exciting places that he could say he was one of the first two kids to go to. "So maybe they might know how to fix what's wrong with me."

"Is it even something to fix though?" Danny felt Sam's question was answered when he realized he had walked through a vending machine. "You can walk through walls, disappear and fly! That's so much cooler than what anyone else can do!"

"Cooler is an interesting way to phrase it Sam." Danny snorted and pulled a notebook from his backpack. "I've been trying to keep track of it all. I'm not sure if I'm gonna be able to make sense of all this without help though." Everything turned unreal besides himself and the journal. Air wasn't passing through his lungs, light had blinked out, and Danny was slipping downward. Then his friends were hoisting him up out of the floor and everything snapped back. "Thanks."

"Hey, you've always got our help Danny." Tucker kept an arm around his shoulders. The weight was reassuring. "We're not exactly scientific experts or anything though. I can do some research maybe, and we'll always pull you out of the floor if we can, but your parents might be able to help you figure out control over this."

"Maybe they could help build some kind of belt or extra wristband that keeps me tethered to the real world? This Wristray™ works pretty well." Though what was even real anymore? Was the earth what was truly real, or did Danny become even more real than that when it all started fading away?

Sam rudely interrupted his existential crisis. "Yeah, all that's nice and good and all, but what if that doesn't go so well? What are you going to say? 'Hey mom and dad, remember when your ghost portal turned on? Yeah, I was inside it when it did that and now I'm kinda ghostly, think you can help?'"

"My voice is deeper than that, I'll have you know."

"By half an octave, and that's not the important part."

"I think getting grounded is worth it Sam." With how he floated off all the time it was actually what he needed.

"Danny your parents are ghost _hunters_. They might not believe it's possible to be Schrodinger's boy like you are and assume that you… that you died. And that you're an imposter. Or worse, they think a ghost kidnapped you and has been impersonating you or something." The boys stopped and stared at her. "With how your parents think about ghosts, where does that leave you if you tell them?"

"On… on the dissection table... " Dad _hated_ ghosts. He ranted and raved about how he'd tear a ghost apart if he saw one. The Fentons had always been a force against ghosts. Jack Fenton had only one problem with how the family used to deal with ghosts: he didn't get to figure out better ways to destroy them _while_ he was destroying them. And that was just his dad. "They'd never listen to me if they thought I was a ghost."

"Alright, alright, before we go triggering panic attacks here, let's think." Ah Tucker. Where would Danny be without him? Tucker pulled Danny closer and messed with his hair until Danny batted his hand away. "Your parents are scientists. Which means that if given sufficient evidence, they _have_ to change their beliefs on ghosts, right? After all, what respectable scientist doesn't base their judgments off of the data? So, we just have to change their minds about ghosts before you go telling them your secret."

"With the ghosts attacking us in the middle of parks and the street at night that'll definitely be easy." Sam huffed, but managed a smile. "That just makes it a challenge though. And there's nothing I'm better at than changing people's minds."

"Thanks, guys." Danny pulled his friends into a tight hug, and they hugged him right back. "I don't know what I'd do without you."

The day passed as usual. Danny took his notes while the teachers taught. Lancer nearly bored him completely to death. Danny's pencil fell through his fingers only 4 times, so that was great! Danny kept phasing out of the real world whenever Lancer's monologuing about some old poet got so dry that he'd normally start daydreaming. Maybe it was tied to his ADHD? That'd be just Danny's luck. Looking down at his notebook when the bell rang, Danny saw more notes questioning if his meds were even working anymore due to being part ghost than about the assignment. "Crap."

"What's wrong Danny?" Tucker was stuffing his phone back into his pocket. Some android he'd modified. Danny should get Tuck to help him with his own phone. It kept dying on him way faster than it should. "You still with us?"

"I think losing focus makes me lose tangibility." Danny stood up and swapped out notebooks, quickly writing it down. He followed Tucker out the door, waved at Sam, and settled between them. "I kept losing tangibility when Lancer's rambling had me on the edge of dreamland."

"That reminds me," Sam said. "Danny have you been keeping up with things pill wise?"

"I think I forgot it this morning. Which kinda sucks, but that usually just means daydreams almost all day." Now it meant a game of Focus, Doodle or Slip Through The Floor. "Think the notes will help convince my 'rents to reconsider ghosts?"

"It'll take a _bit_ more than that, Danny." The expression on Danny's face was most certainly not a pout, as he had told his friends many times. It was a scowl. A scary one at that! "Chill, pouting puppy. I told you, I can convince anyone of anything! I even convinced the school to change up their horribly unhealthy menu and give ultra-recyclo-vegetarianism a chance."

"Pardon? Láojià? Pardonu min?" Danny leaned away from Tucker as he repeated himself. "Did you just say you shoved your veganism onto our menu?"

"I wore them down from piling all that mystery meat onto our trays and switching to a new menu for the week." _Oh, sweet Polaris, this is not going to go well._

Sure enough, once they got into the teal bricked cafeteria, they saw a banner over the lunch line. This Week, Ultra Recyclo-Vegetarian. When the lunch lady set a plate on their trays it held… "Sam is this grass growing out of a bun? I thought bread was made from wheat?"

"I haven't eaten a vegetable in 14 years and I'm not about to let you force me to!" Danny could tell that Tuck's theater classes were going well.

"This is change, Tucker. Change is good."

"That's debatable, Sam." Danny sat down at their table and lifted a spoonful of his turfwich. "I don't remember being asked if I wanted this specific change. Or if I wanted the menu changed at all."

"Yeah, and I sure as hell didn't want it changed like this!" Tucker pointed at his plate as though it had personally offended him. Then he lifted his cup. "This is _wheatjiuce_ Sam!"

"Tucker, you're just mad because now you gotta give healthy food a shot." Sam actually took a bite of her grass bread and Danny felt his stomach turn a little at the thought of it.

"Tucker might be a bit hyperbolic here, but I'm not." Danny set down his spoon and leveled a flat look Sam's way. "How did you wear the school board down about this without a petition? And why? This is clearly not what anyone but you and a few other vegans wanted."

"I don't see what's so wrong with ushering in some change, Danny. The stuff on the menu was ridiculously unhealthy for everyone!" Sam pointed her spoon at him as though giving a lecture. "I'm not sure that mystery meat was even edible."

Before Danny could get his point across, Lancer set a hand down on the goth's shoulder. "Ah, Miss Manson. The school board wanted me to personally thank you for ushering in this welcome experiment to our cafeteria." _Welcome is the last thing this experiment is and he knows it._

Tucker did that thing he sometimes did to show off his weird sense of smell. He gave the air a couple of whiffs and glared accusingly at Lancer. "If it's so welcome that we're eating garbage then why do you smell like steak?"

"The rumors of the all steak buffet in the teachers' lounge are completely untrue. We simply all did our part to help with clearing out the meat from the fridges in the back." Danny had never heard a more blatant lie. Lancer left with a quick extra thanks to Sam.

Sam grinned before turning a scowl Tucker's way. "It's not garbage, it's recyclable organic material."

"It's garbage," the boys said in unison, glaring at Sam. A chill rushed up Danny's spine and out of his mouth in a cloud of blue vapor. "Guys, we've got a problem." Something cold, soft, and gross smacked into the back of Danny's head.

"FENTON!"

"Make that two problems." Danny turned to the familiar bellowing of his least favorite person in the school with a cringe.

Dash Baxter stood far taller than a high school freshman should. The American dream boy. Blue eyes, blond hair, square-jawed, quarterback who never took off his letterman jacket. His fist was a big fan of Danny's everywhere. Mainly his stomach. Dash held up his plate and glared straight at Danny. "I ordered 3 mud pies. You know what they gave me?" _Stars his voice still sounds so nasally. Puberty isn't his friend in at least one department._ "3 Mud Pies. With mud. From the ground! All because of your girlfriend!"

"She's not my girlfriend." The thing to focus on. Truly, that was the only inaccurate thing Dash had even said. And now Danny was dragged off his feet and into Dash's face. Wonderful.

"These are the best years of my life. After high school, I either get a scholarship or everything is over. How am I supposed to enjoy my glory days eating mud?" _Actually study so that you can get in on more than just a scholarship? Use your brain for literally anything?_

"Actually it's topsoil." Sam was the worst help right now.

"Whatever!" Dash pushed Danny back into his seat, head banging against the table. Dash shoved his mudpie plate onto the table regardless and when Danny could see clearly, he growled. "Eat it. All of it."

Behind Dash, Danny saw the pale green form of a woman in an apron floating behind the food line area. What he did next, Danny blamed on the ghost. "Garbage fight!" And Dash's plate was in his face. It made a satisfying splatter sound.

He ducked under the table, grabbed Sam from her argument and sneaked his way under the fire of teens all too easily riled up and throwing gross mud around. "You're gonna pay for this Fenton!"

"Wonderful, I'm his favorite."

They got behind the counter area where the food was and saw a green woman wearing a pink uniform, a pink hat, yellow gloves and a white apron. She was floating a whole foot off the ground and looking all over the kitchen. "Huh. Shouldn't be so bad." On one hand, Danny did want to prove that ghosts weren't inherently evil to his parents. Getting a conversation in with one of them was a good step. "She looks as harmless as my grandmother." On the other, Danny was going to stuff Tucker's hat in his mouth for jinxing them.

"Shouldn't she be haunting a bingo hall?" Danny raised a brow as the woman turned around, red eyes focused on a bowl of salad in her hands. She looked up and floated over faster than most old ladies could walk.

"Hello, children." She sounded innocuous enough. "Can you help me? Today's lunch is meatloaf, but I don't see the meatloaf. Did someone change the menu?" Something about the way she asked that raised Danny a few goosebumps. Maybe the inflection. Maybe the green light coming from inside of her. _Why am I so nervous?_

"Yeah," Sam said. "I did."

The ghost's hair turned into white flames. Her teeth sharpened. Her voice echoed in the least natural way possible. Emerald flames covered the ghost's body as she swelled in size. "_You changed the menu? The menu has been the same for 50 years!_" Based on the unnatural winds, and the fires, and all of that shit, Danny was rather certain his wrist ray wasn't going to cut it this time.

Pushing his friends behind him, Danny reached inside of him for that ball of cold buzzing energy in the center of his chest. He'd been keeping it locked up tight for a while, trying to keep himself normal. Instead, he pushed the energy out, imagined it filling his body up entirely. "I'm goin ghost!" White light gathered at his core and spread out over Danny's body. His clothes were replaced with a black hazmat suit, white utility belt, boots and gloves. Danny's bangs bleached themselves into a silvery white and the world shifted into something in between real and fantasy.

"Look, leave now, or I'll have to fight you! And I really don't wanna have to punch an old lady." She raised her hand. The plates and dishes on the sink counter were blanketed in green light and flew at Danny. "Shit!" Danny focused on that feeling of being unreal, and everything but the Lunch Lady and himself faded away. The blurs of her plates flew through him and Danny felt the tingle of when he reached through a hologram. Amazed, he snapped back into reality a moment later.

Clearly a good thing, as the Lunch Lady was flinging plates at Sam and Tucker as well. Danny zoomed over and caught the plates as best he could, setting them down on the sink counter. "If NASA doesn't become a thing I could look into the exciting career of being a busboy."

The ovens started dancing. If it weren't for the green smoke, Danny's have blamed it on the school's budget. "_I control lunch,_" said the increasingly overdramatic dead lady. "_Lunch is sacred! Lunch has rules!_"

"Ok, literally since when has lunch been sacred or had rules?" Danny kept his hands raised to protect his face. His eyes rolled but his vision never stopped focusing on the lunch lady. The panoramic view was nauseating.

"_Since I wrote the menu 60 years ago!_"

"I'm honestly shocked they haven't changed it in so long. This is why it needed to change!" Sam crossed her arms, face paler than usual, shoulders tight, and eyes set in a glare. _Probably mad that she didn't keep her wrist-ray on like I told her she should._

Rather than contest that with some nonsense about respecting authority or something else Danny expected out of any adult Sam argued with, the ghost left. And the dancing ovens opened their doors and jets of green fire shot out. Danny, Tucker, and Sam all barely dodged out of the way before the ovens disconnected from the wall and flew at them.

Danny grabbed onto his friends' shoulders and pushed that feeling of slipping through the cracks into them. Danny yanked them all through the wall and they landed with a chorus of grunts. Three thuds came from the wall they phased through.

"This is the thanks I get for thinking like an individual?" Sam griped as soon as she was on her feet again.

"No," Tucker said, voice shaking along with his body. "This is what you get for forcing your individual view of what everyone needs onto thousands of children."

Danny looked around, hackles still raised. It didn't feel like the fight was over. At the nearest T section of the hall, Danny was proven right. The Lunch Lady was floating there, glaring at them. An unnatural breeze blew through the halls. The lights exploded. The air chilled until Sam and Tucker were rubbing their arms. "Go get your wrist rays!"

"We're nowhere near our lockers, Danny!" Sam reminded Danny that only he kept his on him at all times. They needed to fix that immediately.

Before Danny could think further on that, a piece of steak slapped him in the face. And then another. A lot of steaks were flying his way, some ribs and burgers too. Danny phased through it all, staring as it adhered to the Lunch Lady's semicorporeal form. Soon she was a silhouette of cooked meat and steak sauce. "Wow, just looking at that is giving me cholesterol problems."

_"PREPARE TO LEARN WHY MEAT IS THE MOST POWERFUL OF THE 5 FOOD GROUPS!_" Wonderful. She was screaming now. Then she held up a cookie that just appeared from the swirling green miasma. "Cookie?" Sam shook her head no. "_THEN PERISH!_"

"Forget it lady. The only thing here with an expiration date is you!" Danny slid in front of Sam, the obvious target, and readied himself for a fight. The world tilted and the energy that was thrumming throughout his body retreated in a wave of light that swept over him. Danny nearly hit the floor, exhausted, and activated his wrist ray. "Well shit." Danny took aim, fired, and burned a hole through the meat monster before he was sent horizontal into Tucker. When Danny looked up, he saw Sam being swept away in a whirlwind of meat.

"Change back, we gotta go after her!" Tucker scrambled to his feet, pulling Danny up with him. The boys almost ran, but a hand clamped over both of their shoulders.

"You two aren't going anywhere." Danny recognized that voice. Mr. Lancer was glaring at them balefully, Dash Baxter within arm's reach.

"Told ya you'd pay, Fenton!"

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**Thoughts? Comments? Questions? Ideas? souls you're not using? blood and bones I can turn into a kick ass sword? ok maybe not that last one, I'd need like 250 people's worth just to make the one sword but beyond that I'm accepting all of the above! I hope you liked it, more on the way!**


	2. Food Fight

**Fights, both physical and verbal, abound! Local Science Boy Tired of Friends' Argument. Local Astronaut Trying Real Hard not to die Here. Local Ghost Hunting Family Talk SCIENCE and Local Art Boy Does Research**

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Danny and Tucker sat in the vice principal's office. On the wall next to the door was an array of monitors that showed security feeds. Across from it was a desk with a globe and the filing cabinet that Lancer was going through. If Danny had to guess the chairs were intentionally made to be uncomfortable. An added punishment for even being there.

"Tucker Foley," Lancer droned. "Chronic tardiness. Talking in class. Repeated loitering by the girls' locker room. Danny Fenton. 34 dropped beakers in the last month. Banned for life from handling all fragile school property, but no severe mischief before today. So, gentlemen, tell me." Lancer set down the folders he was reading from on his desk and leaned forward to yell in their faces. "Why did the two of you conspire to destroy the school's cafeteria?"

"Dash started it when he threw his mud pie into the back of my head!" Danny was going to need a thorough shower later, but for now, turning his head to display that he'd been hit in the head with mud was enough for him.

"He literally tried to make Danny _eat_ the mud." This is why Tucker was Danny's best friend. He and Danny were on the same wavelength.

"Besides, destroy the cafeteria is pretty hyperbolic, don't you think?" _Please lighten up on us because I used a vocab word._

"Mr. Baxter, as well as everyone caught on camera participating in the food fight will be punished for it. You two, however, are taking the first of it with him." Lancer stood and walked out the door. "I'm going to fully map out your punishments when I return. Mr. Baxter, make sure they don't leave." Dash leered at the two of them before leaving, slamming the door behind him.

"We gotta find Sam!" Tucker got up and went around Lancer's desk. By the time Danny was next to him, Tucker was already going through the security files on Lancer's computer. "Do not ask why I have his password or how. We don't have time for that. Oh, thank gods this place has security cameras in the weirdest places." On the screen, Tucker tracked the meat sweep through the school until it settled in one place. "Directly below us. Got enough juice?"

Danny closed his eyes and reached inside, imagining that cold buzzing at the center of himself and surprised to see it warmer, brighter than before if only a bit. He reached out to it, stretched it to the surface, to his bones and skin and felt it pull right back when he did. Heat filled him up from the core like he'd just swallowed too much hot cocoa and spread up and down and out and out until he opened his eyes and the room was that brilliant cool rainbow of greens, blues, indigos and lilacs. "Ok, that's freaky." Of course freaky felt understated to describe being able to see behind him, above him, and where his eyes were pointed all at once. "Find Sam, focus on weirdness later."

Danny held out a hand to Tucker, ignoring that vibrant yellow outlining his entire body and sparks of pale blue dancing all over it. He tilted his head, focusing on the feeling of slipping through everything like a hologram, and when it raced out from his center to the tips of his toes, Danny imagined it spreading out from him into Tucker. They fell together, through the floor and into the meat locker in the basement that Danny could still see even though light passed through him as much as sound and air did. As soon as they were inches over the ground, Danny let go of Tucker and grimaced when he took in a deep gasp, patting his back. "Yeah, sorry." Then, Danny blinked a couple times and where they were hit him. "Is this… a meat locker under the school?"

"See, this is the kinda stuff that Sam needs to get changed. Where they store their food, not what food groups are fed to us." Tucker started walking while rubbing his arms, and Danny stood beside him.

"This is like the time she convinced our middle school teachers to hold a Sadie Hawkins dance when literally no one felt like doing a dance." Danny rolled his eyes. "Except this time she's the one who got kidnapped instead of her nabbing us. Also, repeated loitering by the girls' locker room?"

"I figured that'd be a great place to meet someone to ask for a date."

"How are you both a genius and a dumbass at the same time, Tuck?"

Before the geek could valiantly defend his honor, they heard a voice of strained cheer. "My dear child, meat is good for children. It helps them grow and makes them smile." The boys looked around the corner and saw Sam stuck in a pile of meat that was definitely inedible now. The Lunch Lady floated in front of her, a whole fish and a chicken leg held up in either hand. "Why won't you eat it?"

"We don't need meat. That's fact." Sam never was one to back down when she was championing something, even if she was wrong. It was something Danny admired about Sam. He never thought food was the hill Sam was willing to literally die on though.

_"Silence!"_ The ghost's voice echoed and that wind picked up yet again. Danny wondered if he could call up special effects like that for Halloween. _"You need discipline, manners, respect. You know where that comes from? Meat! Fish, or chicken?"_

"Plus, most of the nutrients we need are in fish and chicken," Tucker muttered. Or at least, he probably thought it was muttering. What it actually happened to be was loud enough for the ghost to hear them, bright red eyes turned toward the boys.

"I'll deal with the ghost, you get Sam out of that meat pile." Danny ran as fast as he could. His fist reared back and collided with the ghost's head harder than he expected it to. She was launched into the wall. Danny immediately followed up with a kick to the face. Mid-strike the Lunch Lady grabbed onto his ankle and held Danny up while floating upright.

_"This is why you need meat! You're skin and bones!"_ She tossed Danny across the room. At the last second, he passed through the wall. And the ground. It took a couple seconds to get back up to the basement.

There, Danny found shish kabobs being flung at him. Going completely on reflex, Danny separated his torso from his legs and the deadly food sank into the concrete behind him. There were cracks in the wall. While Danny pulled himself back together, an enraged Lunch Lady ghost let out a furious roar that matched his internal screams in volume, and all the meat in the storage locker rose from their containers. Even the meat Tucker was pulling off of Sam in chunks rose off of her and swirled around the ghost in a storm. Sam and Tucker got closer to Danny until they were in arm's reach, and the 20-foot behemoth of meat with green torches for eyes roared down at them.

_"Fuck no."_ Danny grabbed his friends and the complete absence of everything but gravity rushed through them all again. Danny pulled and snap the gravity tethering Danny and his friends to the Earth was undone. Danny flew through the wall to the outside, flying faster when he heard a loud crash. They became solid and spots danced in front of Danny's eyes and his head ached as he kept his focus on Sam and Tuck to make sure they were alright, looking behind them constantly and keeping them from crashing into a tree or wall as he flew them away.

"Thanks, Danny, Tuck." Sam shot them both a big grateful smile. "You must be exhausted ghost boy. Fighting in ghost mode, yanking us through walls. Holy shit, Danny you're _flying_!"

"What gave ya that idea?" Danny yawned in the middle of that sentence but felt it was irrelevant. But then, everything went dark as they tumbled into a heap on the grass. And then it went silent.

* * *

Tucker and Sam stared at each other. For a handful of moments, neither were entirely sure what they should do. Sam was trembling with so many emotions she wasn't sure how to identify them all. She could've died. Her best friends could have died. How is a teenager even meant to process that? She wanted to curl up on the ground and hide from everything in that moment, will all the nasty reality of Ghosts away. But Tucker was bent over Danny, and Danny is out cold. So she packed away the emotions, cooled her shit, and bent down. "You get his legs, I'll take his shoulders. FentonWorks?"

They got him there. Danny's parents were downstairs, working on something. They got Danny on his bed, and Sam slumped against the door. Tucker and Danny skipped over a detention essentially and all three have skipped school. So Tucker went down to erase the Fenton's voice mailbox and sent out a bug to his own. Sam had no clue why he had that ready but asked if he could do it with her folks' line. He asked for a few minutes to get to work on it. The silence passed, Tucker got on Danny's laptop. He always fled to the tech when he needed somewhere safe. Eventually, he asked, "You ok? Today went to shit."

"No, I don't think I am. I need a shower, I guess." They both knew why she wasn't actually ok. Neither wanted to bring it up. So instead, Sam checked Danny's closet and found something she'd left there a couple months back. "I'm gonna do that actually. Keep an eye on him?" Tucker grunted in acknowledgment. That was the best she'd get so Sam grabbed a spare towel from the dresser and headed to the shower.

When Sam got back she looked over Tucker's shoulder. Images of old ladies in familiar looking uniforms were all over the screen. "Looking her up?"

"If we know more about her then we can talk it out with her right?" Tucker's fingers paused over the keyboard. He stretched, looking over at her. "Right?"

"Probably. Looking to work that Foley Charm on her?" Sam elbowed him lightly in the ribs. Tucker clutched his chest as though he'd been broken. Thank gods for that smile on his face. "Tell me you aren't planning to flirt with her. Danny might get jealous." Tucker snorted.

"I don't think Danny is into spontaneously combusting old ladies." Tucker went back to typing and clicking, screen light glaring off his lenses. "So, my theory is that ghosts draw on ambient energy to sustain themselves. When we went into that fight my phone was on like… 50 percent. When we got here it was at 17. So maybe we should carry batteries on us?"

"And our wrist rays." Sam was never letting herself be helpless like that again. "what've you got on her so far?"

"She said the menu hasn't changed in 50 years and she wasn't kidding. So I'm looking back at people employed by Casper back when she was alive, and hoping I can recognize her facial structure."

"Impressive." Sam sighed and looked over at Danny.

_He zipped up his suit. Sam made a face at him and pulled off the logo of his dad's face. "You can't go around with this on your chest." He agreed. If Danny ever met aliens of the extradimensional kind, he didn't want them to see his dad's face plastered on him. Danny walked into the tunnel of his parents' ghost portal, looking all around it. The whispers of those other worlds called out in his head again. As he walked deeper into the portal, Danny saw nothing wrong. Not a nut or bolt out of place. He got to the end. It was dark. Too dark to see anything. Turning back, he kept a hand on the wall to steady himself. His foot hit a raised panel, and Danny leaned to the left for support. There was a click._

Danny opened his eyes and saw Sam looking down at him. Not unusual. The soreness in his muscles, however, was. Danny stopped mid-stretch and winced. "Oh. Right. 20-foot meat monster." Tucker was at his desk, turned around in the chair and giving him that frown he had when Dash had slammed Danny into a locker. "How long was I out for?"

"Four days." Tucker reached under Danny's bed and lifted up a bag of Nasty Burger.

"Four Days?!"

"Nah, like, 2 hours dude." Tuck chuckled and handed him a wrapped burger. "You need this dude, that fight took a shit ton outta you."

"Don't I know it." Danny unwrapped the burger and sank his teeth in. He'd been hungrier than he thought. It felt like a blink before the burger was gone. "Thanks, dude, I really needed that. We basically skipped lunch, didn't we?" That thought had a horrible domino effect and Danny tore the burger wrapping in half. "Fuck, my parents are gonna kill me!"

"I erased the voicemail from your box, mine, and Sam's. Don't worry about that."

"Speaking of, how ya doin Sam?" Danny turned, looking his friend over and wincing at the bruises on her arms. "Fuck, the meat pile did that?"

"Yeah, turns out being grabbed up by a bunch of proceeded corpses can do some damage." Sam shrugged. "It's nothing I can't fix with some concealer and sleeves."

"It's still warm though," Danny said. "You good baking yourself?"

"The heaters in the school barely work, and it's nearly October, Danny. Things have cooled down plenty." Sam frowned and looked over to Tucker. "Do head injuries affect the perception of temperature?"

"I'm sure they can. If only someone hadn't summoned up a meat-obsessed lunch lady with a menu change." Tucker paused and raised a brow. "Actually, how in the _hell_ did you even get them to change it? Nevermind the why."

"The why, Tucker, is that schools need to promote healthier changes in the food we consume." Sam had that fire in her eyes. Again. Danny let out a long sigh, which went ignored by his bickering friends.

"And removing an entire food group from the menu was your solution?"

"It's one we don't even _need_ Tucker! Do you know how inefficient the transfer of calories from meat into our bodies is?"

"We need protein, Sam! If there's anything that the Lunch Lady said truthfully it's that! Look at Danny! He barely gets any protein, you can see how that's turned out for him."

"My dude, I'm not the only skinny person here."

"Whether or not we have meat and protein isn't your decision to make for us all, Sam!" Tucker glared balefully at the vegan and stood up from Danny's chair. "You had to be an individual and have all your individual needs met over what anyone else wanted, didn't you? No one but you even wanted this menu change and I'm going to fix it!" Tucker stormed out of the room, leaving the door open.

"Oh like Hell you're gonna undo all my hard work!" Sam barged out as well, completely forgetting Danny as she slammed his door shut. And Danny stared at that door for a moment before groaning into his pillow.

"This is going to be a whole thing, isn't it?" For several moments, Danny laid there and stared up at the constellations he'd put up on his ceiling in glow in the dark stickers. His stomach reminded him of its existence, and Danny groaned again. He still had some allowance left, so he went out and headed to the Nasty Burger. Considering Tucker's words and how much he'd done that day, Danny ordered a full meal.

After he'd eaten and walked it off on the way home, Danny let what had happened that day go through his mind. Even as he fought off a small angry blob with his wrist ray, growling at it. "Ghosts aren't mindlessly violent beings. I know that." He needed to believe that. "So, that means that she can be calmed, somehow. She kept going on and on about the benefits of meat, and she died years ago…" An email notification popped up on Danny's computer, and he sighed. "Right, homework assigned by Lancer. What would I do without Tuck?"

The next day, Danny pulled on one of his darker shirts - a gift from Sam with some constellation's accurately displayed - and some jeans. His parents didn't come up to join him and Jazz that morning, which was likely for the best. Danny didn't need their ghost radar pointing at him before he could figure out how to break their biases. The second his cereal was finished, though, Danny pulled out his journal and attached pencil. "No," Danny snapped when he heard Jazz take a familiar breath. "It's not a diary, no you may not read it. For the 11th time, Spazz." _One good thing out of all this sensory bull is seeing those colors_. Danny could tell from glancing at most people close to him- Jazz, Tucker, Sam - how they were most feelling, he guessed. The air around them shimmered with a color that looked and felt like emotions, but the colors varied for everyone.

Danny wrote into his journal a goal of recording his encounters with apparently sapient ghosts and how quickly he managed to pacify them. If only he could think of how to pacify this one.

Once the hybrid got to school - later than he would've been had those damned blobs not been so interested in fucking with him - Danny groaned as he was dragged to the Vice Principal's office. There he found Tucker, who was glaring down at the desk in just the right angle to look like he was glaring directly ahead. A trick he'd developed for gathering valuable passwords while tricking Lancer and other authorities into thinking he was just a semi-rebellious teen. Danny couldn't tell what Tucker could possibly be trying to gather from the desk now, but he may have just been scowling. Tucker was complicated that way.

"Take a seat, Mr. Fenton." Danny obeyed and took his seat, looking steadfastly at the space just behind Lancer's head. "Tell me, gentlemen, _how and why_ did you leave my office when both of you were already being punished for starting a food fight in the cafeteria?" Before either could come up with an answer, Lancer slammed his hand down hard on the desk, and Danny flinched. "What could possibly have possessed you two to _skip school_ for the rest of the day?"

Danny squirmed a bit, while Tucker took even, obviously measured breaths. He then looked up at Lancer directly. "We were worried about Sam, sir. She hadn't answered any of her texts, and she always answers even when we're fighting to make sure we know she's safe." Not untrue, Sam wouldn't have been able to answer a text if they tried that. Danny nodded along to Tucker's story.

"We left out the window to find her, which took forever since she had gone to find a way to help organize something for the school." Danny put on his most apologetic face. "We're truly sorry about ditching you, Mr. Lancer, but we had to make sure our friend was safe, you see. We wanted to make sure none of the jocks or anyone had gone and done something horrible to her as revenge for getting the menu changed for a week."

Lancer glared between the two of them for several seconds more, and Danny fought to keep himself still. "Fine," Lancer finally allowed. "I will be following up with Ms. Manson to confirm all of this, but you won't be receiving too harsh a punishment for looking out for your friend. For endangering yourselves by leaving through the window, however, and for leaving without simply telling me, you will be serving both lunch detention and after-school detention. Do you understand, boys?"

"Of course, Mr. Lancer." It amazed Danny, at times, that he and Tucker could speak in unison. They were like twins.

"Dismissed. You two best not be late to my class."

On the way to class, Danny brought up his thoughts on trying to appease the Lunch Lady. "Her name is Agatha," Tuck said. "Agatha Reece. She died during the Poindexter incident back in the 50s along with most of that year's graduating class. And maybe you could, I dunno, teach her about the health crisis in America? Help me organize the school to reform the menu the right way?"

"You want it changed too now? I thought you were gonna get it changed back early, or something?"

"Oh no, the food around here sucks either way." Tucker rolled his eyes. "I just wish we had like, a better storage of better food in general. I could recommend my uncle and aunt's farm for fresh, nearby food products."

"If only we knew how Sam convinced the school to do this whole 'vegie week' thing." Danny shook his head. "That's what really doesn't make sense to me. We've only been in school for like, a month or so. How the hell did Sam 'wear them down' so quickly?"

"No clue," Tucker growled. For a moment the hair on Danny's nape stood on end at the sound. "But, I'm going to make a petition, and head around the school getting signatures for a better permanent change decided on by the students."

Danny patted Tucker's shoulder and nodded somberly. "Leave some printer paper for the rest of us at least?"

Tucker raised his nose, Danny now straining to hold in the laughter in front of the door. "Sorry Danny, but a man on a mission has to go to all lengths to complete his quest."

Danny bowed at the waist. "Of course, Friar Tuck, how could I possibly forget?"

"You are forgiven, peasant Daniel." Tucker laughed and pulled Danny into the classroom. Things would be alright. Danny just needed to weather the storm and make sure both of his friends were still friends by the end of it.

It proved far more difficult a task done than said. The three had most classes together, but Tucker was busily writing _something_ down every few seconds in a second journal in his desk while he worked. Tuck had the most fascinating form of ambidextrousness. He barely paid any attention to Danny's attempts to start a conversation and crumpled up any notes about Sam he slid over.

Similarly, Sam was ignoring him almost entirely. She took her notes, but every time she caught him whispering to Tucker, she glared and went cold on Danny himself. _Am I not allowed to talk to both of my friends?_

Lunch came around, Lancer had them eating in his room, and Danny had never been more grateful to Tucker's mom than he had been when Tuck handed him an extra bagged lunch. "Tuck, you are the best."

"I know it, dude."

"Gentlemen! This is meant to be a time of quiet reflection upon your misdeeds." Lancer glared at them until the teens went to silently eating, and Lancer went back to whatever he was doing on his computer. If Danny focused on the man's headphones hard enough he could pick up the faint sound of… blasters? Weird.

At the end of the day, however, while the two were meant to be heading to detention, Tucker was going around and asking groups of friends who were lingering about something and holding up a clipboard that Danny was almost certain he stole from his dad's office. Along with that pen. Never was Danny ever earlier than Tucker to something, but apparently, detention was one of those things. Sam, surprisingly, was also there.

"Lancer got you too?" Danny asked as he swept a bit nearer to the goth

"I _was_ gone all day." Sam shrugged, pushing the few remains of grass and mud into a pile and then grabbing a dustpan. "Plus I wanted to help clean it up anyway. We need this place to eat in after all."

"Actually, I heard Jerry and Katelyn at least were eating on the theater stage." The two scooped everything up into a trash bag with the dustpan. "They were inviting some other people to bring sandwiches and chips and stuff."

"Oh wow," Tucker called out from where Danny was very sure he shouldn't have been able to hear them. "No one wanted to eat garbage right from the ground? I'm surprised, shocked even."

"Had you actually been there to see, Tucker, there were plenty of people eating peacefully in the cafeteria today!" Sam looked downright murderous and stomped off to clean away from Tucker. Danny sighed a heavy sigh and shook his head.

The detention had gone on for an hour, but it'd felt like forever. Danny watched both his friends march off in different directions and groaned. Another friendless night for him. After a trip to the Nasty Burger, Danny did a little walk around the city. A few ghosts that he could see when the world lost focus skittered away from him, or ignored him entirely. Some attacked, but his wrist ray had yet to run out of juice even though he forgot to charge it last night. "Maybe something to do with my other self. Gonna have to ask mom and dad about that." A shiver ran down Danny's spine, a puff of mist coming out of his mouth and he looked around, letting his senses shift into that surreal state of his ghostly self. He saw nothing out of the ordinary. Relaxing, Danny sighed and headed home.

"Danny!" His dad, Jack Fenton, only seemed to speak in exclamation marks. Danny wondered if he'd ever had an inside voice. "C'mon, dinner's ready son!"

Danny raised a brow. "Who cooked?" He'd eaten his Nasty Burger meal and was pretty sure he got all he needed.

"I did!" On the other hand, more food that wasn't infected with ectoplasmic residue sounded nice. Danny set down his bag and headed into the kitchen, where his dad had set out chicken, mashed potatoes, garlic bread, and spinach. His mom and sister were already sitting and eating, and Danny gave them both a wave.

"Hi, Danny! Juice is in the fridge. Jazz reminded your father and I we need to refresh our minds with some air every now and then. I thought, why not a family dinner?" Mom shrugged as she picked up a chicken leg. "Jack insisted on cooking."

"Mom," Jazz said in her best calming voice, "Dad never mutates the food."

While Mom and Jazz debated who had the bigger mishaps with ectoplasm - Danny felt the Christmas turkey and Dad dragging them into a world of blinding perpetual light ranked as the biggest mishaps period - Danny grabbed himself a plate and fruit punch. Jazz clearly grabbed some groceries before telling their parents to surface.

Halfway through his meal, a thought struck Danny. "Hey Dad, Mom? How does ectoplasm interact with electricity in its rawest most natural form? The ectoplasm not the electricity."

Jazz stared at him in betrayal, _Why_ written in her expression. His parents, however, jumped on the thought of their son having an interest in their work. Danny had never seen his dad swallow food that fast.

"Ya see Danno, ectoplasm is naturally an energy thief. In relation to electromagnetic radiation, it soaks in any and all of it from the area with the exclusion of green visible light. That's why it feels so cold and makes everything around it dark!"

"If we can refine our engines properly we can utilize the flip side of that natural state," his mom added, "We could revolutionize energy efficiency in technology around the world!"

"It can store up a lot of power, but once it hits it's maximum?" Dad held his hands together then spread them out so fast he almost smacked Jazz and Danny. "It all comes out in an intense burn! Ectoplasm is either plasma hot or cold as space. When it's cold, it'd drain the power out of everything around it."

Danny nodded, letting the info process for a couple of moments while he ate. "So if, say, a ghost ate human food…?"

"Well," his mom twirled her fork around. "It likely wouldn't, but if it did the ghost would soak up all the energy that could be gotten out of the material in the food, leaving nothing but ashes."

Danny nodded, curiosity satisfied, and steered the conversation elsewhere. Once he was done clearing off his plate, Danny was struck with a realization. It was the sort of thing that happened all the time, when a thought lingered in his head, waiting to present itself. Usually, that was artistic inspiration. Now he knew exactly how to calm down Agatha. Up the stairs, he ran to his computer.

* * *

**My wonderful Beta Reader ReconstructWriter made a point to me about how Sam should have an argument to match Tucker and Danny, and I agreed, so here ya go. Also, Danny didn't learn that he could fly until this chapter, if you didn't catch it.**

**Thoughts, Comments, Opinions, suggestions, or even if you just have fruit to offer, please leave em below**


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